New Core processor options for Zbox Nano

Small form factor systems are vogue, and that's just fine by Zotac, which has been cashing in on the craze for palm-sized systems with its Zbox Nano line. These aren't wimpy little systems, either, especially now that some of them have been upgraded with Ivy Bridge processors from Intel. These include Intel's Core i3 3227U, Core i5 3337U, and Core i7 3537U processors.

Haswell: Can a laptop CPU keep enthusiasts happy?

Faster hardware shouldn’t be this somber. Yet we can’t help but furrow our brow in concern over Intel’s fourth-generation Core i7 CPU. Yes, in typical Intel fashion, it’s a tour de force of technical achievement and features that’s the envy of the free world. It’s also, by the way, quite fast.

How fast? *Spoiler alert* Let’s just say that the new Core i7-4770K easily unseats the previous midrange sweetheart, the Core i7-3770K, as the best all-around performer, and even gives the high-end hexa-core part a hard time.

Faster Haswell parts are on the way

Intel's Haswell architecture hasn't been on the market all that long, but such is the advance of technology that something newer, better, and faster is always right around the corner. In this case, it's still Haswell we're talking about, but according to a leaked roadmap, Intel is getting ready to refresh its Haswell family with a few new chips in the third quarter of 2013, including two that fall into the company's "Premium Performance" category and one that's an "Extreme" part.

Core overload

Haswell has already landed, and if you're building a new rig today, you might as well jump on the new platform. At the same time, Intel clearly put a great deal of focus on mobile friendly features, so even though Haswell is a step up from Ivy Bridge, it's not the end-all-be-all that some where hoping for. Haswell-E, on the other hand, brings the desktop back into focus and will offer 8 processing cores and 16 threads. That's not all.

Smartphone sector isn't appealing to AMD right now

You can hardly go a week without there being a new smartphone announcement, some bigger than others. Thanks to a combination of lower prices (especially subsidized pricing) and advancements in mobile technology, smartphones are more popular than ever, but that doesn't mean AMD is anxious to jump in and start competing with ARM, its licensing partners (like Nvidia and Qualcomm), and Intel.

Don't look for Broadwell chips any time soon

We've seen some leaked roadmaps as of late, including one that has Intel's Ivy Bridge-E slated to ship in the third quarter of this year, followed by refreshed Haswell parts in 2014. What about Intel's 14nm Broadwell architecture, you ask? Broadwell is nowhere to be found on any of the slides, perhaps indicating that it won't come out until 2015 at the earliest. Maybe Intel's having problems shrinking the die to 14nm, or there just isn't enough competition to warrant releasing Broadwell in the near future.

AMD is intent on recapturing the enterprise market.

Roadmaps have a way of leaking onto the web, so rather than fight the inevitable, AMD this week decided to publicly disclose its server strategy and related processor roadmap as it attempts to gain back market share in enterprise and data center server markets. The chip designer also disclosed details of its 2014 server portfolio, including "Warsaw," "Berlin," and "Seattle" parts due out next year.

Ivy Bridge-E is right around the corner.

Processor roadmaps must be slippery little suckers because it never seems like AMD or Intel are very good about holding onto them. Instead, we're frequently treated to early, often unauthorized glimpses of what each semiconductor has in store, and this time it's a look at what Intel is planning. The latest leaked roadmap shows Intel's processor plans through the first half of 2014.

Even the most diehard fan boy can admit AMD’s not in the hunt against Intel’s top-end processors—well the reasonable one’s anyway.

That doesn’t mean AMD still can’t give Intel a hard time. While AMD can’t compete with the Core i7-3970X or even the Core i7—4770K, the company’s rush to merge CPU and GPU to make the APU has put more pressure on Intel than Intel would probably want to admit.